In general, takoyaki is a baked food prepared by heating a special pan with molds, pouring wheat flour-containing liquid batter into the heated pan, putting ingredients such as octopus and red pickled ginger into the batter, and baking the batter into balls. In recent years, frozen takoyaki has been on sale, which can be eaten after heating in a microwave oven. Popular takoyaki has a crisp baked surface and a soft, melty, creamy texture inside. Unfortunately, takoyaki with such a soft texture inside has a problem of a low shape-retaining property. Immediately after baking, takoyaki can maintain their unique ball shape because its surface is baked hard; however, its surface becomes soft with internal water migrating over time, to thereby lose the shape-retaining property and become dented or flattened. In addition, when takoyaki with such a soft texture inside is frozen and then heated in a microwave oven, it may entirely become soft immediately after heating and become dented or shrunk, which makes it impossible to obtain the unique appearance and texture of takoyaki sufficiently.
Some methods have been proposed for making takoyaki with a soft texture inside and a high shape-retaining property. Patent Literature 1 discloses that a baked food is produced using a mix including wheat flour and gelatin as essential ingredients. Patent Literature 2 discloses a takoyaki making method which includes adding a takoyaki modifier including a thickening stabilizer, such as gum, pectin or alginic acid, with an average particle size of 20 μm or less. Patent Literature 3 discloses a takoyaki making method which includes attaching a starch-containing dispersion on the surface of semi-baked takoyaki and then heating it.